Hacking Elite College Admissions

50 Surprising Insights on the College Application Process

Gaelle Pierre-Louis

• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781641377256
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

CHAPTER 9

SECURE THE FUNDING: PART 1

---

Section 41: Does applying for financial aid hurt my chances of admission?

Myth: Applying for financial aid will negatively affect my admissions decision.

Truth: With the cost of attendance for several universities slated to increase in the next decade, more and more families are understandably worried about whether they will be able to afford sending their children to college. By 2025, the University of Chicago and at least a handful of other selective US colleges, such as Columbia University and Southern Methodist University, are predicted to have a sticker price of $100,000. In reality, most colleges’ students pay less than the sticker price. Most selective colleges seek to build a class that is racially and socioeconomically diverse and provide tuition discounts and scholarship dollars to help students afford these cost-prohibitive universities. If you need financial aid to get through college, it is in your best interest to apply for it and then enroll in the school that gives you the most money, especially during your undergraduate studies.

Now, the question about whether applying for financial aid hurts your chances of admission remains. The truth is that it depends on whether the college you are applying to has a need-blind admissions policy. Need-blind admissions mean the college does not take into account a family’s ability to pay when making admissions decisions. Admissions officers at need-blind schools do not even know that you are applying for financial aid at all unless you mention it in your college essay or elsewhere on the application. The schools that follow need-blind admissions will admit students based on academic merit, regardless of whether the student can pay. Over 100 US colleges and universities follow need-blind admissions for US students. Examples of need-blind schools include Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, MIT, and more.

Need-aware colleges, by contrast, factor in a student’s family ability to pay for college in their admissions decisions. These schools do not have unlimited budgets and have to be more cost sensitive as to whether they can afford to fund students applying for financial aid. These schools include Smith, Oberlin, Tufts, Colgate, etc.

Note that colleges with need-blind admissions might not meet the full demonstrated financial need for their admitted students. This is important because you might be able to get into your dream university but then you might not be able to afford it. Fewer than half of the colleges with need-blind admissions meet the full demonstrated need for admitted applicants. By contrast, need-aware policies sometimes give students better financial aid packages when they admit students, because they are picky about whom they offer admission to in the first place and only offer admissions packages to financial aid applicants if they can afford to do so. When you visit a college or call the admissions office, be sure to ask if their university’s financial aid office meets the full demonstrated need for admitted students.

Typically, if you are applying as an international student, financial need matters more. Stanford Undergraduate Admissions stated that international students’ “request for financial aid will be a factor in [their] admission evaluation.”133 This means that a lot of international hopefuls are sometimes denied admission because of their financial need. Moreover, Stanford said that if international applicants choose not to apply for financial aid, they “are not eligible to apply for financial aid at any time during their four years at Stanford.”134

Also, some need-blind colleges are only need-blind during the normal review process and tend to not be need-blind for waitlisted students. Audrey Smith, dean of enrollment at Smith College, explained that her school’s admissions officers “take out of the class and place on the wait list those with high levels of financial need.”135 If you are in a situation where you have high financial need and you are placed on a waitlist for a school, please get in touch with that school’s financial aid office for an estimate of what your package would be like should you be admitted.

Bottom Line: Although applying for financial aid might negatively affect an applicant’s chance of admission at some schools, you should still submit your financial aid form to all the schools where you will apply. You do not want to be in a situation where you get into your dream college and cannot pay for it or, worse, have to take out private loans with high interest rates. For many jobs, professional degrees are required or preferred, so you may have to pursue a graduate degree depending on your field of study. You need to get as much scholarship money as possible so you can be more flexible after your undergraduate studies.

Section 42: Do I qualify for a fee waiver or enrollment deposit deferral?

Myth: If I cannot afford the application fee or pay the enrollment deposit, I will not be able to attend college.

Truth: The cost of applying to college can start to add up, especially if students are applying to eight or more schools. Application fees range from twenty-five to ninety dollars per college, which may feel out of reach for many applicants and their families. While you cannot simply forgo these fees as they are a required part of the application, you may qualify for a fee waiver that either eliminates or greatly reduces the cost of applying. After you are admitted to the college of your choice, you usually must pay an enrollment deposit fee, and the same principle applies: you can contact the school to either eliminate or lower the price of your enrollment deposit.

Here are several insights on how to acquire those fee waivers from colleges, as explained by the College Board:136

•Insight 1: Every income-eligible student who takes the SAT or SAT Subject Tests with a fee waiver can apply to over two thousand colleges in the College Board network for free. Students typically receive those fee waivers when they get their SAT scores.

•Insight 2: If you are eligible for free or reduced lunch at your high school, yo...

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• FOREWORD
• INTRODUCTION
• THE GATEKEEPERS
• PREPARE FOR SUCCESS
• APPLY, APPLY, APPLY
• KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
• EMBRACE WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE
• UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS
• DO NOT PANIC
• MAKING THE DECISION: WHAT’S NEXT?
• SECURE THE FUNDING: PART 1
• SECURE THE FUNDING: PART 2
• CONCLUSION
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• GLOSSARY
• APPENDIX